THE TARPON AND THE TEMPEST 



on the port bow? They're mixin' up trouble. 

 Look, see! Know what them tails is droppin' 

 out of the sky for?" 



"Looks like waterspouts?" 



"Sure! Right off Shark River Bight, too! 

 That's where they make 'em. I've seen four 

 there to onct." 



"They won't trouble us. This wind will carry 

 them away." 



"Wind nothin'! They make their own wind. 

 See 'em now! Two dead and t'other pumping 

 water from th' Gulf, a barrel a second. Comin' 

 this way, fast, too!" 



The waterspout was growing with amazing 

 rapidity. The massed black clouds formed a 

 huge, inverted cone with its apex resting on 

 another cone of water which rose swirling from 

 the Gulf. The gigantic hour-glass came swaying 

 toward us. It grew stouter in the middle, blacker 

 above, and more turbulent below. More impres- 

 sive than the picture itself was the thought of the 

 tremendous invisible power that before our eyes 

 was hoisting water to the clouds by the hundred 

 tons. 



"You don't seem in much hurry to get out of 



